Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10 1949) is an American businesswoman investor, speaker, consultant writer, syndicated columnist, television host, and author. In 2001, she established The Corcoran Group in New York City. She later sold the business to NRT for $66 million. Then, shortly after she resigned from the company. Corcoran is among ABC's original Shark Tank investors. As of now she has appeared on each season of Shark Tank. In February of 2020, she had closed 53 deals. The largest of these was a $350,000 investment in Coverplay at 40 percent. Corcoran was the second of a family of 10 children born to an Irish-Catholic couple working in the middle class in Edgewater, New Jersey.  Her mother, Florence, was a household worker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. her father, was a skilled worker throughout Corcoran's early years. The family relied on free food deliveries from a local grocer. Corcoran recalls her father being an alcohol-dependent drunkard who often treated her mother with contempt and disrespect, especially when the fact that he was drinking. Corcoran struggled through her schooling before discovering that she had dyslexia. She went to an area Catholic elementary school before beginning high school in St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran who was in the process of failing numerous classes in her freshman year, moved to Leonia High School. There she received a grade of D.